Summary:

Faults:

General Comments:

The first is the comfort of the car for driving. The Volvo seats are superb and excellent for long distance driving. The cabin is cosy and well designed with a clear dash and easy to use controls.

The second reason is the usefulness of the car. The boot is huge and the car can easy cope with 5 adults and luggage.

The third reason is the quality and finish of the car is excellent. The cabin is well screwed together and the external paint finish is fantastic.

Performance is good when the car has warmed up and is at speed, but the Volvo' acceleration can be a little sluggish from traffic lights in urban areas.

Refinement is good and ride quality is good - however the handling of the car is a little unenthusiastic when it comes to bendy roads or high speeds - understeer sets in early and you can feel the chassis flex a little as the car protests such treatment!

2000 Volvo V70 GLT from North America

Summary:

Faults:

A bracket holding the front left turn signal light broke (causing the light to pop out of the front grille area and dangle by the electric line).

The seat belts often don't retract fully (which caused the buckle to poke a hole in the door leather when the door was closed).

The cover for the driver's seat adjustment controls has broken twice and keeps falling off.

The button on the gear shift lever kept sticking and had to be replaced.

The windshield wiper fluid pump needed replacement.

Plastic covers which cover where the front seats are attached to the floor board near the back seat keep falling off. The carpet-like upholstery keeps pulling out from under the plastic moulding near the passenger side door.

Some kind of flap valve associated with the air conditioning/outside vent switching doesn't close properly (which causes the air conditioner to pull in outside hot air even on recirculation (in Texas, not good)).

Some kind of coating has begun to peel off the front and rear bumpers (Volvo says it's my problem because the paint is only warrantied for one year).

General Comments:

Too much time spent at the dealership.

I can't believe that for a garage-kept car with only 23,000 miles, that the paint (or whatever kind of coating) is already peeling off the bumpers (ridiculous for a $40,000 car).

10th May 2002, 18:24

Hi.

Not sure if this is the same as your car, but what the heck.

We have a 92 960 wagon. We got it new. The car is blue. I noticed that after a year or two that a blue film was peeling off of the area just below the front bumper. At first I was peeved. Then I found out that it "supposedly" is just there for cosmetic purposes, and that it is not there for European models. I was told that the delaerships usually remove it prior to delivery. Not sure how much of that story is true, but I wouldn't doubt it. I wound up peeling it off and to tell the truth, the black looks better than the blue film. And it doesn't scratch.

You other problems seem a damn shame for a 40k vehicle. Have been considering getting an XC, but am just not sure.

We have owned 4 Volvos over the years, and have generally pleased with them overall, but I'm wondering how the "ford effect" is going to pan out.